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3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

openculture.com

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Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#171

Post by avgcorrection »

jbandela1 wrote: post #165
sizzzzlerz wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Said nobody on their death cot ever, “I wish I’d spent more time carving hieroglyphs down at the Pharoah’s tomb!”

> Said nobody on their death cot ever, “I wish I’d spent more time carving hieroglyphs down at the Pharoah’s tomb!” That actually may not be true. Pharaoh was a religious figure, considered to be god on earth. He was also the embodiment of Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and Egyptians' conception of the afterlife was linked to Pharaoh, and their prospects for the afterlife were linked to how close they were to Phar…

Such ridiculous, delusional devotion is for the clergy. The whip is for the slaves.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#172

Post by Hendrikto »

beeforpork wrote: post #162
sethammons wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A buddy grew up in Mexico. When he was 10 or so, he pissed on a wall and got stung in just about the worst place imaginable. I don't live around scorpions and now I keep an even larger distance between me and peeing-surfaces lol

The exact way of getting stung by a scorpion while peeing would be most interesting -- I honestly cannot imagine the exact mechanics. A bee, a wasp, OK, I can imagine. A scorpion cannot fly, so how did it get so close?

I guess the scorpion must have been on the wall.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#173

Post by thechao »

divbzero wrote: post #124
ARandomerDude wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that the dates are "Month 3 of Summer, Day 24" etc. The curious bit to me being the enduring use of 4 distinct seasons, when there are obviously other ways to mark a year. Is anyone aware of a culture that did/does not have exactly 4 seasons?

Another phenomenon I’ve found curious is the cross-cultural definition of a week as roughly a quarter moon, and correlated names for days of the week. [1] Sunday Sun Sōlis Hēlíou 日曜日 Monday Moon Lūnae Selḗnēs 月曜日 Tuesday Mars Mārtis Áreōs 火曜日 Wednesday Mercury Mercuriī Hermoû 水曜日 Thursday Jupiter Iovis Diós 木曜日 Friday Venus Veneris Aphrodítēs 金曜日 Saturday Saturn Sāturnī Krónou 土曜日 [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N…

There's some ... but I think it misses two really important ones (and this is just off the top of my head):

1. The Romans had an eight day "week"; and,

2. The mesoamericans had a 260 day "week" (or, at best, interlocking 13 and 20 day "weeks").

I think the 7-day week is more of a statement about how effective the Judeo-Christian culture has imposed a modern week on the rest of the world.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#174

Post by adwww »

jklinger410 wrote: post #167

I love that the men take a day off because their daughters or wives are having their period.

I wonder if that's because they were unclean by association, or did they just have to do practical stuff like cook / go to the market / make hot water bottles?

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#175

Post by avgcorrection »

LanceJones wrote: post #12

We really are the same people. No measurable difference in IQ (as well as that can be "measured"). Only knowledge (some gained for us; some lost, too) and context are different. The tablet is a cool reminder of this.

Alien: Hey.

HNer: Hey.

Alien: Our mutual research shows that we have roughly the same IQ.

HNer: My brother!

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#176

Post by LudwigNagasena »

dylan-m wrote: post #28
robbedpeter wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is incorrect - iq has risen steadily with improvements in nutrition, public health, and medical science. It's mostly plateaued over the last 50 years, but it's evident that pre-industrial / pre-rnlightenment humans had a much harder life, including things that suppressed potential at an almost global scale. We may see additional gains if there are globally adopted pedagogical improvements in both childhood educa…

> This is incorrect - iq has risen steadily In particular, we recently invented this peculiar notion that one can boil intelligence down to a number :b

I am pretty sure people used to call others stupid or intelligent even in Ancient Egypt. Quantifying that measure is not really such a huge leap.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#177

Post by bryanrasmussen »

avgcorrection wrote: post #171
jbandela1 wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Said nobody on their death cot ever, “I wish I’d spent more time carving hieroglyphs down at the Pharoah’s tomb!” That actually may not be true. Pharaoh was a religious figure, considered to be god on earth. He was also the embodiment of Osiris, the god of the afterlife, and Egyptians' conception of the afterlife was linked to Pharaoh, and their prospects for the afterlife were linked to how close they were to Phar…

Such ridiculous, delusional devotion is for the clergy. The whip is for the slaves.

I figure the carving hieroglyphs might be a pretty middle class job.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#178

Post by walrus01 »

ASalazarMX wrote: post #92
ARandomerDude wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that the dates are "Month 3 of Summer, Day 24" etc. The curious bit to me being the enduring use of 4 distinct seasons, when there are obviously other ways to mark a year. Is anyone aware of a culture that did/does not have exactly 4 seasons?

It's common among many ancient cultures to treat equinoxes and solstices as events of great importance, as those mark the beginning of the season change, but not all regions experience seasons the same. Ancient Egyptians, while knowledgeable of astronomy, had only three seasons: Akhet (summer/heat), Peret (flooding, of the Nile) and Shemu (harvest). Notice the conspicuous absence of winter. https://egyptianstreets.co…

In particular the traditional Persian new year (Nowruz) starts in spring, and is celebrated throughout central asia as far as Kazakhstan.

Re: 3,200-year-old Egyptian tablet records excuses for why people missed work

#180

Post by jll29 »

tomkat0789 wrote: post #97
blakesterz wrote: post #54

The original with ALL of the excuses is at the British Museum here: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA5634

Time off for illness! That's nice. I wonder if one of the HR scribes tracked the days every person took off in an analog ERP system. Scribes seemed important, maybe they outsourced the basics to contractors.

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